Drinking and Paleo don’t mix

Well that was a fun and rough weekend…or at least the parts of it that I remember were. Friday night was a nice and quiet date night in with Mark: Dinner and a movie. Saturday went shopping at the Farmers Market with my Mom. Also, made a trip to see the house she and my step-father, Greg, are building. It’s coming along GREAT:

Saturday night went out for my friends “Moving to Colorado” party. From what I do remember, it was a blast! I had 3 glasses of red wine and 1 whiskey water. I went from 0 to 60 – gee I don’t even feel a buzz to I love you bar toilet. Nasty. REALLY wish I had stayed sober enough to party with my friends all night. :( I spent my last hour and a half in a bathroom stall (mind you this is at 9:30 – 11:00 so it’s not like I partied till 4). Bummer. I remember trying to sober up so I could join in with everyone, but it wasn’t working. Luckily my husband got off work and came to get me – I wasn’t sure if I could’ve left the toilet long enough for him to get me home. But he did. His reward = I puke all down his back in bed, but I remembered to spit in the garbage can he left out on the side of the bed for me when I was done. :) Poor guy, but he takes care of me and I love him!

Lesson learned at the end of the day: If you are planning on drinking, eat the crust of the pizza. Something needs to absorb the alcohol and a chicken breast, salad, guacamole, and plantains will not do it. Or drink less, like 1 drink. Ugh – seriously learned this lesson. So glad my friends all still had a good time! 

Other Paleo updates: This morning the scale read 141.8lbs = 13.2lbs gone. I probably would’ve lost more if I didn’t get so wasted Saturday and had a Nutri-grain bar Sunday for lunch (trying to keep food down). That’s one cheat I don’t regret due to extenuating circumstances. Today will be a strength training day. The 1^st was last Thursday (not bad). I need to get in 2/week so I think I’ll make that Monday’s and Thursday’s. I’ll do sprints on Saturday’s and the rest of the week walk/hike/bike. 

Will let you know how it goes. Wish I could say I feel great and strong here, but I can’t since I think I’m still hung over. Again, lesson truly learned.

Krista

The Dining Out Challenge

Today is the first day that I will be dining out and eating Primal. Luckily we are going to a Burger joint that is known for using local products (meat and veg) and all I have to do is not get fries or eat the bun. Should be too bad – I’ll be feasting on the ‘Dundee’ burger: sautéed mushrooms, bacon, garlic aioli, and a fried egg. I’ll 86 the American cheese that comes with. 

Last night I began strengthening exercises. Pushups, lunges, squats, and planks - Need to add pull ups (gotta get the P90X pull up bar set up. I also ate fewer carbs yesterday to achieve:

50-100 grams/day – Primal Sweet Spot for EffortlessWeight Loss
Minimizes insulin production and ramps up fat metabolism. By meeting average daily protein requirements (.7 – 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight formula), eating nutritious vegetables and fruits (easy to stay in 50-100 gram range, even with generous servings), and staying satisfied with delicious high fat foods (meat, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds), you can lose one to two pounds of body fat per week and then keep it off forever by eating in the maintenance range.

…and it worked. 142.8lbs this morning, which brings the total to 12.2lbs lost so far. My arms are looking more toned, my stomach has more definition, legs are more toned (skinny jeans slid right on), and I’ve noticed improvements in my skin (clearer).

 You will probably get tired of hearing it said here, but I don’t remember the last time I weighed this amount. Mostly because in college I didn’t use the scale much: I ate what I wanted, didn’t exercise, and relied on my age/metabolism to get me through unscathed. And it did, for a while. Once, and if, I hit the 130’s that puts me back at my high school weight - AMAZING.

 I will try to get some before and after pictures up sometime soon. The before pictures will not show much, because I avoided cameras and it was during winter. We don’t show much skin around here in Iowa when negative temperatures (that means below 0 degrees) are the usual. Stay tuned.

Krista

Progress Update...

I’m 11 days successfully into Paleo and I’m feeling great! Not much has changed with the physical appearance since I last posted: 144lbs and look about the same – I should’ve taken measurements! Maintaining is a good thing. :o) Perhaps this is my optimal weight and now I just need to do more lifting for muscle toning/definition.

The recipes I’ve been making from my Everyday Paleo cookbook are delicious! My favorites so far are the Egg Cupcakes and Italian Pork Sausage Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Bacon (aka Meat Candy = AMAZING). Tonight I will make Stuffed Bell (yellow & orange) Peppers. That’s what makes this ‘diet’ so easy – the great food. 

Last night we had take-out Chinese, which is still doable if you are on Paleo. I had Mongolian Beef with no rice or noodles. It came with tons of onions and sodium, but I tried to incorporate a good amount of vegetables. 

Lunches at work are the most difficult. There are two options: Packaged tuna w/salad or chicken breast w/salad. Yup it’s getting old into my second week. You can only change up the salad so many ways in a cafeteria that doesn’t have much veggie selection (and probably not the most nutritious vegetables either). I’ll probably start bringing in a lunch, which means full hands and arms on the bus and less leftover dinners. :o(

Things I need to improve on:

1. Eat more vegetables @ lunch and dinner.
2. Get more sleep - Goal = 8 hours. 
3.  Incorporate more exercise every week – Goal = more lifting.

Things I’m doing well on:

1. Zero Cheating: No grains, No Processed Crap & No Dairy = yay!
2. Roaming: 2 walks/daily with Gizmo (45 – 90 minutes/day) and weekly sprints.
3. Playing: Boating, Swimming, Running around barefoot with Gizmo and having a blast!
4. Cooking healthy meals. 
5. Not relying heavily on the scale or losing faith with slow progress.

EDIT: Did some research. I need to lower my sugar and carb intake to continue to loose weight 'like magic.'

Krista

Going back to my roots

My girlfriends and I like to have diet competitions. This isn’t as bad as it sounds. Basically the competitions are us trying to exercise (30 minutes) every day and incorporate more healthful foods into our diet. Based on how well you do – counting cheating – you get so many points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the competition wins and we usually take them out for dinner and drinks.

We’ve done Live Healthy Iowa through work, Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred, veggie/fruit days, and most recently a take on the Paleo diet. Usually the contests are pretty successful –we supported each other and found it more enjoyable to be healthier if others we there with you. The last few competitions weren’t as successful, but it was mostly because we weren’t ready for them – more specifically the Paleo diet. 

At first glance the Paleo diet is so foreign you think it is one of those “CrAzY diets” that are a quick and unhealthy fix to shed a few pounds. Seriously, what diet says you can’t have grains, dairy (that means cheese and milk too!), and anything that has been processed (aka comes in a box/package), or anything high in starch: peas, beans, white potatoes, etc. For all of us this eliminated most of our pantry. We were so shocked by the food limitations and strict rules we had to build in daily vices and weekly cheat meals to even attempt the diet.

At first it was not easy, but we set ourselves up for failure. The diet is impossible if you allow yourself to ‘have a daily vice’ and cheat weekly. If we were serious about beginning the Paleo lifestyle, we needed to mentally and physically prepare ourselves to take it on, but because we didn’t we failed after a week or two. The first attempt at this diet wasn’t all bad – I and another friend actually had some success. When it first began I weighed more than I ever have in my life. Mind you I’m only 24, so whole life really just means the past 10 years when I first noticed the scale realized I was eating poorly. I would eat whatever I wanted because I was young and relied on the metabolism I had built for myself (played lots of sports growing up through High School). At the end of High School I would consider that my optimal weight/body. I was slender and toned (about 130lbs, but weight doesn’t much matter with Paleo – onto that later).

Went through the fun college years and slowly picked up more pounds. I went to a private college and it didn’t have my sport of choice so I had less activity and I continued to eat whatever I wanted – oh and there was some drinking. By the time I graduated I was slightly heavier (about 140lbs), but nothing that bothered me unless I was in a bathing suit. Nothing close to the Victoria’s Secret supermodels…but that’s an unhealthy comparison.

Fast forward to two years later: I’m happily married, working full-time in research administration at a University (sedentary desk job), and have a puppy pug – Gizmo. Oh and I have added another 15 pounds of weight making that a total of 155lbs. At this point, I really start to notice. All of a sudden I have cellulite in my legs, working on a muffin top, large and in charge arms/thighs. I notice that I’m fuller and I don’t like it. I don’t want to buy bigger new clothes, be embarrassed at the beach, or watch my weight get worse. I didn’t know what to do. Yeah the girls and I were on the right track helping each other, but I DID NOT want to be a yo-yo dieter trying out a bunch of different diets all the time. I’ve seen those results and I needed to find answers now. 

I looked back at the Paleo diet. I had lost about 9lbs on that (146lbs) and was starting to fit better in my clothes before we all fell off the deep end. Once we were off that diet for almost 2 weeks I gained back 5lbs. I continued to make healthier choices over that time period, but I had added carbs and processed food back in. On Wednesday of last week I decided it was time for some research.

I read everything I could get my hands on related to Paleo and soon discovered it’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle. You have to commit 100% for it to be successful – that doesn’t just mean follow the strict rules, but rather: listen to your body. I told the friend of mine who also had success on our ‘Paleo diet week’ about the articles and that I was going to give it another shot. She decided to join me. I immediately ordered Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso and book marked her blog for additional support, tips, and delicious recipes. 

I began the Paleo lifestyle on Saturday June 25, 2011. I shit you naught, but it is easier this time. Go figure. It could be because I knew what to expect, I was prepared, and there was support from my friend and all of the Paleo Blogs. I have been completely Paleo for the past 6 days and it’s amazing. ZERO cravings for any of the old crap I used to purge on or give into. I can’t believe it – I read that you would initially have the cravings and it would be difficult, but I haven’t yet. Maybe it’s because I tried it shortly before with minimal cheating? Not sure. Don’t care. I’ll take easy any day. J So far the results are like magic – just like the blogs said it would be. The pounds/fat seem to fall off. After gaining back those 5lbs over the 2 weeks I was at 151lbs – the scale this morning read 144lbs = -7 in 6 DAYS. 

Results: My clothes fit better, I’m more slender, I have more energy (no more afternoon crashes), I focus better at work, sex drive has increase (hubby doesn’t complain), and I’m excited to show off my bikini bod this weekend when my family goes boating for the holiday = increased self-esteem. 

Again weight isn’t everything. About a week ago, Sarah’s blog had 2 pictures of the same woman and she weighed the same 155lbs in both – but they were drastically different. This is important if you start the lifestyle. You don’t want to be discouraged by your scale number not moving in the right direction – don’t put weight on a pedestal and think you must achieve it. Instead, look at yourself in the mirror. If you incorporate 2-5 hours of exercise a week into your lifestyle you should notice the fat shedding off and you muscles becoming more defined. Now that is the Paleo Lifestyle.

I will continue to blog on my Paleo journey, the highs and the lows. If you read all of this, thank you because that was a crap-ton of me yammering.

Off to grab some lunch – can you believe a chicken breast on spinach with broccoli and cauliflower sound good? Oh well, I’ll take it!

Krista